Electric street-indicator.



No. fi4|,224. Patented Jan. 9, I900. J. Y. PORTER.

ELECTRIC STREET INDICATOR.

[Appl ton filedD 17 1896) 2 Sheets-Sheet I.

(No Madel.)

I @WW \NIINEEEEE Azruauzr No. 64I,224. Patented Jan. 9, I900. J. Y. PORTER.

ELECTRIC STREET INDICATOR.

(Ajplication Thad Dec. 17, 1896.) (No Model.) 2 SheetsSheet 2.

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PATENT Grace .iosnrn Y. PORTER,

OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR TO JAMES l/V;

MORRISON, OF SAME PLACE.

ELECTRIC STREET INDICATO R.

$PEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 641,224, dated January 9, 190( Application filed December 1'7, 1896- $erial No. 616,102. (No model.)

To ail whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J osnrn Y. PORTER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Detroit, in the county of Wayne and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric Street-Indicators; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to improvements in street-indicators for street-cars; and it consists of a certain new and useful arrangement of electrical devices whereby the intersecting streets of a railroad are automatically indicated,as hereinafter more fully described, and set forth in the claims.

The object of the invention is to provide mechanism for operating the drums or rollers over which travels a band or ribbon which bears the street-displaying designations, the said mechanism being of such character that it can be shifted electrically by the operator to operate the parts to put them in position to be automatically moved in a proper direction on the outward and return trips of the car or, in other words, so that the said parts at each endof the route, automatically or by the operator, may be shifted to alter the stepby-step mechanism, so that when a car is on the up trip the impulses received from the trolley-wire through the medium of suitable hangers will move the street displayband drums in a direction that will display, successively, the streets to be crossed, and when the car ison the down trip the impulses will move the said drums in the direction reverse to their former movement in order to display the streets successively on that trip, thus enabling the operative to have the mechanism under perfect control to set the devices when required. This object is attained by means of the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a front elevation of the streetindicating mechanism; Fig. 2, a' side eleva tion of the same; Fig. 3, a diagrammatic View of an overhead trolley system, showing the arrangement of the hangers, electromagnets,

and switches for operating the street-indicating mechanism; and Fig. 4:, a similar view showing the feed-wire and the hangers arranged thereon at proper intervals.

Referring to the several views, the numeral 1 indicates an oblong rectangular box suit ably supported in any convenient position in a car. Near the upper and lower ends of this box are journaled suitable drums or rollers 2 and 3, over which travels a band 4, bearing the names of the streets to be successively crossed by the car. The journal of each roller projects at one end through the side of the box and is provided with a ratchet-wheel 5, having square teeth, as shown in Figs. land 2. On each shaft is loosely mounted a Y-shaped lever 6, the lower one of which is provided at its lower end with an armature 7, arranged opposite the poles of an electromagnet 8, situated at one side of the box or casing, while the lower end of the upper lever is provided with a similar armature 9, arranged opposite an electromagnet 10, situated at the opposite side of the box. The right-hand arms of the Y-shaped levers support magnets 11 and 12, respectively, and the left-hand arms support magnets 13 and 14, respectively. The armature on the respective levers is held normally away from its magnet by a spring 15, the tension of which is regulated by an adjusting-screw 16 at the side of the box. At the juncture of the branching arms of each Y-shaped lever, on the rear side thereof, there is pivoted a bifurcated rockable pawl 17, having an arm 18 adapted to engage the teeth of the ratchet-wheel and rotate it step by step when the magnets 11 and 14 are energized and an arm 19 provided with a friction-shoe which engages the face of the ratchet-wheel teeth with a frictional contact when the magnets 13 and 12 are energized, but are out of engagement with said teeth when magnets 11 and 14 are energized. The friction-arms 19 serve alternately as a brake to hold the streetdisplay band at proper tension when the arms 18 alternately engage the ratchet-wheels to rotate the drums. The respective arms are each provided with a suitable armature to be attracted by their respective magnets. In order to maintain the pawls 17 in either of their rocked positions, a spring 20 is employed, one

for each pawl. One end of the spring is attached to a pin 21 at the upper end of the pawl and the lower end to a pin 22 on the Y- shaped lever, and as the pawls are moved to one extreme or the other the springs are moved across the pivoted points of said pawls.

It will be understood that the normal position of the lower end of each lever 6-that is to say, when their respective armatures are not in contact with the magnets 8 and 10-is such that the distance between thearmature 7 and the magnet 8 and that between the armature 9 and magnet 10 is sufficient to allow the levers to oscillate a distance requisite to move the ratchet-wheel one tooth.

The shafts of the drums 2 and 3 are provided with sprocket-wheels, (not sh own,) and an endless sprocket-chain 23 passes over said wheels, so that both drums will rotate in unison.

The numeral 24 indicates the trolley-wire, to which current is fed from a feeder (not shown) in the usual manner. Near each crossing the trolley-wire is provided with a hanger 26 and at each end of the line with a hanger 27 and 28, respectively. The hangers 26 are arranged to contact with a sleeve 29 on the trolley-pole, properly insulated therefrom. The hangers at each end of the line hang in different planes, the hangers 27 being arranged to contact with sleeve 30 and the hanger 28 with sleeve 31, both of which sleeves are insulated from the trolley-pole.

The numeral 32 indicates a hand-switch which enables the conductor to display the next street in case a street should be missed by'the trolley coming off. 33 indicates a similar switch for reversing pawls at the down end of the line, and 34 a switch for reversing the pawls at the up end of the line.

By referring to Fig. 3 it will be seen that one of the terminals of magnet 8 is connect-- ed with contact-sleeve 29 by conductor 35 and also with contact-plate 36 of the switch 32, while the other terminal is connected with one terminal of the magnet 10 by conductor 37, the other terminal of magnet 10 going to the ground. The switch 32 is connected with the trolley-pole by conductor 38. The magnet 11 has one of its terminals connected with sleeve 31 and with contact-plate 39 of switch 33 by conductor 40, the other terminal of said magnet being connected with one terminal of magnet 12 by conductor 41 and thence to ground. The trolley-pole is connected with switch 33 by conductor 42. The magnet 13 has one of its terminals connected with sleeve 30 and switch 34 by conductor 43 and its other terminal with magnet 14 by conductor 44, the other terminal of said magnet being grounded. The trolley-pole is connected with switch 34 by conductor 45.

In operating my device should the indicator be short and the car going up the operative uses hand-switch 32 as many times as the indicator is short on streets to bring the street-display band into proper position to indicate the names in proper sequence. 1f the operation of the switch moves the indicator backward, then hand-switch 34 must be moved once, so as to reverse the pawls 17 and bring them in proper position. As the car approaches the first street the hanger 26 is engaged by the sleeve 29, allowing the current to pass through magnets 8 and 10, which, becoming energized, attract their respective armatures, and thereby rock the Y-shaped levers. As the levers are mounted loosely on the ends of the drum-shafts, it will be seen that the band will be moved to display the next street. WVhen the car passes the last street previous to reaching its terminus, the hanger 28 will be engaged by the sleeve 31, which permits the current to pass through magnets 11 and 12 and reverse the pawls, and as the car returns on its down trip the first intersecting street brings a hanger 26 into engagement with sleeve 29, which shifts the street-display band in a reverse direction to that which the last hanger 26 did. When the car reaches down terminus, the hanger 27 will be engaged by the sleeve 30, which will furnishcurrent to magnets 13 and 14 to reverse pawls 17 for the up trip.

Assuming the car to be under way and the magnets Sand 10 and the arms 18 in position as shown in Fig. 2, the magnet 10 will be the one to operate. The current as the trolley reaches a hanger passes through both magnets 8 and 10 at the same time; but only one magnet is effective, because the arm 18 of the magnet 12 will be tripped to an off position, while the arm 18 of the magnet 13 will be in an on position. This continu-es until the end of the line is reached,

when a reversing-hanger, placed at a different elevation, is encountered. The current then flows through magnets 13 and 14, which reverses the arms 18, and as the car subsequently passes on another street on its return trip magnets 8 and 10 are again supplied with current the same as on the west trip; but because the arms 18 are reversed the magnet 8 does the pulling and the magnet 10 actuates its lever idly. When the car reaches the otherend of the line, a second reversing-hanger is passed, and the current is supplied to magnets 11 and 12, which re stores the arms 18 to the position when the west trip preceding was run.

The magnets 11 and 12 receive current at one end of the line only, and magnets 13 and 14 receive current at the other end of the line only. When magnets 11 and 12 or 13 and 14 receive current, the magnets 8 and 10 do not receive current at all. When the operator wishes to change the indicator, he can use the switches 32, 33, and 34.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- 1. In an electric street-railway system the combination of hangers supported in difierent planes from atrolley-wire, contact-sleeves ICC on the trolley-pole arranged to contact electrically with said hangers, a street-indicating mechanism, a magnet operating said indicating mechanism in one direction, and two sets of magnets one for each end of the line, and each set in circuit with a contact-sleeve, operating to automatically reverse the indicating mechanism, so that it may be operated in the opposite direction.

2. In an electrical street-railway system, the combination of a series of hangers supported from a trolley-wire in the same plane, a series of contact-sleeves arranged on the trolley-pole to make electrical contact with said hangers, street-indicating mechanism, magnet in circuit with said sleeves for operating said indicating mechanism, a hanger supported from the trolley-wire, at one end of the line, in a different plane, a second contact-sleeve on the trolley-pole, and a set of magnets operating to automatically reverse the indicating mechanism when the car has reached the end of the line, said set of magnets being connected with said contact-sleeve,

as set forth.

3. In an automatic electric street-indicator, the combination of the street-indicating band and drums,the Y-shaped levers provided with suitable armatures at their lower ends, electromagnets disposed opposite said armatures, electromagnets carried by said levers, and bifurcated pawls mounted on said levers and provided with suitable armatures, whereby the street-indicating band is moved step by step and reversed at the end of the line.

4:. In an automatic electric street-indicator, the combination of a display-band, a Y-shaped lever, provided with an armature, mounted on the shaft of one of the drums carrying the band, an electromagnet disposed opposite said armature, a ratchet-wheel mounted on the shaft carrying the lever, a pawl pivoted in said lever and adapted to engage said ratchet-wheel, and magnets carried by the lever and arranged to operate the pawl.

5. In an electric street-railway system, the combination of hangers supported in different planes from a trolley-wire, contact-sleeves on the trolley-pole arranged to contact electrically with said hangers, a street-indicating mechanism, a magnet operating said indicating mechanism in one direction, and two sets of magnets one for each end of the line, operating to automatically reverse the indicating mechanism, so that it may be operated in the opposite direction.

6. In an electric street-railway system, the combination of a series of hangers supported from a railway-wire in the same plane, con: tact-sleeves arranged on the trolley-pole to make electrical contact with said hangers, a

street-indicating mechanism, magnets operating said indicating mechanism, a hanger supported from the trolley wire, at one end of the line, in a different plane, and two sets of magnets operating to automatically reverse the indicating mechanism, when the car has reached the end of the line.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

' JOSEPH Y. PORTER. Witnesses:

G. L. HANNA, Louis B. GRossLIGHT; 

